Printed electronics startup plans pilot production line

LONDON – PragmatIC Printing Ltd. (Cambridge, England), a developer of printed electronic technology, has announced plans to begin pilot-scale production the government-backed Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) in Redcar, Northern England.

PragmatIC is introducing a pilot production program there – called P4 – that can be used by licensees, processing equipment makers, complementary technology providers, systems integrators such as converters and labelers, and end users including major brand owners. The pilot line is intended to commence operation by the fourth quarter of 2012.

In 2010, PragmatIC acquired the printed electronics business of Nano ePrint Ltd. (Manchester, England), including its patented technology for planar nanoelectronic devices that can fabricated in a single semiconductor layer via a single-step imprint patterning. PragmatIC has extended process to enable device and circuit architectures to be printed in transparent, flexible semiconductors at micron and sub-micron scale.

"We welcome interest from all those in the industry who want to make printed electronics products a reality, and encourage collaborative participation in our P4 initiative," said Scott White, CEO of PragmatIC Printing, in a statement.

PragmatIC's pilot line will utilise CPI's cleanroom facilities.

Tom Taylor, CPI's director of printable electronics, added: "The P4 initiative is also highly complementary with other activities at CPI, in particular the Integrated Smart Systems line which is ideally suited to combine PragmatIC's imprinted logic with other printing and electronics technologies to deliver innovative finished products."

Great! We are getting closer to printed electronics. The government is supporting business development in many places. Let’s hope it flourishes.
Is it correctly stated? "… to be printed in transparent flexible semiconductors at micron and sub-micron scale." Isn’t the semiconductor printed in a flexible layer made of a different material, or is the flexible layer also made of silicon?